Richland County, South Carolina

South Carolina voters cast ballots for Richland County Council and several area school boards. On County Council, Districts 1, 4, 5, 6 and 11 were on the ballot, with Kimberly Snipes and challenger John Crangle leading their respective races against incumbents, while Devine, Terracio and Jackson ran unopposed. In Richland One, ten candidates competed for four board seats amid efforts to maintain progress after the state ended heightened financial oversight of the district. Richland Two and Lexington-Richland Five also held multi-candidate school board races. Early returns showed leaders in most contests, with affordable housing and growth tied to the Scout Motors project emerging as a shared concern among County Council candidates.

The ACLU of South Carolina has filed a lawsuit against the state Election Commission alleging its September 2025 firing of executive director Howard Knapp violated the state's Freedom of Information Act. The suit claims commissioners entered closed session without a sufficiently specific stated purpose, denied Knapp his right to request a public hearing, illegally polled members privately, and that former chair Dennis Shedd held one-on-one talks with colleagues to build support for removing Knapp, circumventing FOIA's intent. The ACLU is not challenging the firing itself but seeks a court order compelling disclosure of records from the closed portion of the meeting and a declaration that the law was broken. A hearing is scheduled for September 28 in Richland County, though it may be postponed.

Knapp's dismissal came amid a separate dispute over the Justice Department's push for South Carolina voter data. Shedd later accused Knapp of fostering a hostile workplace and falsifying voting-machine purchase records, claims Knapp's attorney disputes. Knapp and his former deputy, Margaret Paige Salonich, were later arrested on unrelated charges; both cases remain pending, as does Salonich's separate lawsuit against the commission.

Columbia City Council has given first-reading approval to sell the former Royal Motel property at 1507 Harden St. to attorney, former state lawmaker and CNN commentator Bakari Sellers. The site sits on a block once home to a thriving Black business district from the 1930s through the 1970s, including the Lighthouse & Informer newspaper, the Carver Theatre, the Cozy Inn Restaurant (a Green Book listing), and a branch of Victory Savings Bank, South Carolina's first Black-owned bank. The city purchased the dilapidated property in 2023.

Sellers plans to build a new hotel with retail and commercial space while preserving the block's historic character, and hopes to partner with neighboring Allen University and Benedict College. A second council vote is required to finalize the sale, with no set development timeline yet. Historians are pursuing National Register of Historic Places status for the block, which could unlock historic tax credits to support restoration efforts.

South Carolina reports more than 30,000 intimate partner violence cases annually and has ranked among the top 10 states for the rate of women murdered by men in 23 of the past 25 years. Since 2009, at least 37 officers and 99 civilians have been injured or killed responding to domestic violence calls statewide, including Columbia Officer Christopher DeLong, fatally shot in August by a man accused of violating a restraining order.

While overall domestic violence reports fell 5 percent in 2024, intimate partner homicide rates climbed 3.3 percent that year and 23 percent over the past two decades. Greenville County recorded the most officer-involved shootings tied to domestic calls (42 since 2009) and the most intimate partner homicides in 2024. Black women face more than twice the homicide risk of white women in these cases, and nearly half of female homicides between 2017 and 2021 stemmed from intimate partner violence. Advocates note many incidents go unreported due to fear, financial dependence, or shame. Officers now undergo extensive academy training, including scenario-based exercises, to prepare for the unpredictable nature of these calls.

South Carolina Republicans returned to the polls Tuesday to pick a nominee for the Senate seat long held by the late Lindsey Graham, who died in July after winning renomination in June. Sen. Darline Graham, appointed to fill her brother's term and backed by President Trump and Sen. Tim Scott, faced Rep. Ralph Norman in a runoff after neither cleared a majority in the Aug. 11 primary; third-place finisher Rep. Russell Fry endorsed Graham. The winner faces Democrat Annie Andrews in the fall.

In Georgia's 13th Congressional District near Atlanta, Democrats Everton Blair and Marcye Scott, daughter of late Rep. David Scott, competed in a runoff to serve the remainder of Scott's term after topping a five-candidate field in July. Neither is seeking the full term beginning in 2027; that contest will pit Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Clark against Republican Jonathan Chavez in November. Both races drew attention as tests of turnout and party strength ahead of the 2026 midterms, now 70 days off.